Rigour in teacher education revisited: a Freirean mark of creative freedom

University teachers teaching on courses leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England encounter an ideological clash between compliance-driven practice-based models of 'teacher training', favoured by the Department for Education (DfE), and critical approaches to curriculum, assessment, teacher identity and pedagogy essential to educating teachers who can challenge, develop and contribute to the educational system they are teaching in. This paper explores the ideological clash around a single issue – educational rigour – using Paulo Freire's concepts of freedom, dialogue and identity in teaching and learning to re-evaluate the idea of rigour in initial teacher education (ITE) in England. In the face of curriculum frameworks and market-led reviews of ITE, this paper offers ways of reformulating teacher education around outcomes that will deepen student teacher identity and freedom and their ability to critique effectively the system of which they will soon be a part.